Question: Do odors affect people's mood? If so how?
Background Information:
Smell is often our first response to stimulation. It alerts us to fire before we see flames. It makes us recoil before we taste rotten food. Scientists are still exploring how, precisely, we pick up odorants, process them and interpret them as smells. Smell, like taste, is a chemical sense detected by sensory cells called chemoreceptors. When an odorant stimulates the chemoreceptors in the nose that detect smell, they pass on electrical impulses to the brain. The brain then interprets patterns in electrical activity as specific odors.
My opinion on this is that people get effected easily by certain smells. Well of course bad scents like ammonia, your going to react to. It is not a very pleasant smell. Then there's cinnamon and lavender which is nice, and most likely your not going to have a bad smell reaction to. Different people have different reactions. Maybe males have different reactions, than females. (Sites) http://www.senseofsmell.org/feature/smell101/lesson1/01.php http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/587389/can_your_sense_of_smell_affect_your.html?cat=5 http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=do-scents-affect-peoples
Hypothesis: My experiment will demonstrates exposures of different types of odors and It will affect a persons mood.
Procedure:
1). Research psychological studies on the affects of smell on our mood. What kind of results do you think you will have with the smells selected? Hypothesize on what you think people? reactions will be.
2). Get the following candle scents- Pine - Vinegar - Cinnamon candle - Lavender candle -
3). Find a person willing to have you test the scents on them.
4). Have the person close their eyes and relax.
5). Place each bottle, one at a time, under their nose and have them tell you how the smell makes them feel. Take your time.
6). Record results after each scent.
7). Give the person a moment to clear the smell and continue with your testing.
8). Go through each scent with each person to create a graph that records everyones response.
Materials:
Pine
Vinegar
Cinnamon candle
Lavender candle
Pencil
Graph
Paper
Experiment: (Do the experiment)
Data/Results:
Person 1
Scent
Vinegar ; Lavender
Mood for Vinegar:
Unpleasant
Mood for Lavender Candle:
Pleasant
Reaction for Vinegar:
Bad
Reaction for Lavender Candle:
Good
Person 2
Scents Being Tested
Cinnamon Candle; Pine
Mood for Pine:
Unpleasant
Mood for Cinnamon Candle
Pleasant
Reaction for Pine:
Bad
Reaction for Cinnamon Candle: Good
Person 3
Scents Being Tested
Lavender ; Vinegar
Mood for Vinegar:
Unpleasant
Mood for Lavender Candle:
Pleasant
Reaction for Vinegar:
Bad
Reaction for Lavender Candle:
Good
Person 4
Scents Being Tested
Pine ; Cinnamon
Mood for Vinegar
Unpleasant
Mood for Cinnamon Candle:
Pleasant
Reaction for Vinegar:
Bad
Reaction for Cinnamon Candle:
Good
Conclusion: I have come to the conclusion that, actually odors or scents do affect a person's mood.
Smell is an amazing thing us humans can do. We can smell things that are appealing, and things that are not
so appealing. After doing this experiment, I have learned that smelling odors or scents
does affect a humans mood. So as I stated in my hypothesis, I happened to be correct.
Scientific Method Template
Topic: Odors and moods.Question: Do odors affect people's mood? If so how?
Background Information:
Smell is often our first response to stimulation. It alerts us to fire before we see flames. It makes us recoil before we taste rotten food. Scientists are still exploring how, precisely, we pick up odorants, process them and interpret them as smells. Smell, like taste, is a chemical sense detected by sensory cells called chemoreceptors. When an odorant stimulates the chemoreceptors in the nose that detect smell, they pass on electrical impulses to the brain. The brain then interprets patterns in electrical activity as specific odors.
My opinion on this is that people get effected easily by certain smells. Well of course bad scents like ammonia, your going to react to. It is not a very pleasant smell. Then there's cinnamon and lavender which is nice, and most likely your not going to have a bad smell reaction to. Different people have different reactions. Maybe males have different reactions, than females.
(Sites)
http://www.senseofsmell.org/feature/smell101/lesson1/01.php
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/587389/can_your_sense_of_smell_affect_your.html?cat=5
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=do-scents-affect-peoples
Hypothesis: My experiment will demonstrates exposures of different types of odors and It will affect a persons mood.
Procedure:
1). Research psychological studies on the affects of smell on our mood. What kind of results do you think you will have with the smells selected? Hypothesize on what you think people? reactions will be.
2). Get the following candle scents- Pine - Vinegar - Cinnamon candle - Lavender candle -
3). Find a person willing to have you test the scents on them.
4). Have the person close their eyes and relax.
5). Place each bottle, one at a time, under their nose and have them tell you how the smell makes them feel. Take your time.
6). Record results after each scent.
7). Give the person a moment to clear the smell and continue with your testing.
8). Go through each scent with each person to create a graph that records everyones response.
Materials:
Experiment: (Do the experiment)
Data/Results:
Unpleasant
Pleasant
Bad
Good
Unpleasant
Pleasant
Bad
Unpleasant
Pleasant
Bad
Good
Unpleasant
Pleasant
Bad
Good
Smell is an amazing thing us humans can do. We can smell things that are appealing, and things that are not
so appealing. After doing this experiment, I have learned that smelling odors or scents
does affect a humans mood. So as I stated in my hypothesis, I happened to be correct.